“College Road Trip” – Susan Granger reviews

Maybe he read those recently alarming statistics – that one out of four teenage girls has a sexually transmitted disease – but there’s this small-town Illinois police chief who is determined to protect his daughter’s safety and security, no matter what.

James Porter (Martin Lawrence) is a control-freak. There’s no doubt about it. So when his beloved 17 year-old daughter Melanie (Disney Channel star Raven-Symone) starts looking at colleges, he’s determined that she attend nearby Northwestern, where he’ll be able to keep an eye on her.

But clever Mel has secretly applied to Georgetown University, which has exactly the pre-law curriculum she’d like. With a bit of help from her understanding mother (Kym E. Whitley), she’s off to Washington, D.C. for an interview. But not alone. Dad is determined to drive her, and her little brother (Eshaya Draper) stows away in the police SUV’s trunk, along with Albert, his squealing pet pig. Then there are Mel’s best friends (Brenda Song, Margo Harshman), who meet them at a sorority house stopover. And, eventually, they wind up car-pooling with another father-daughter tandem – Doug (Donny Osmond) and Wendy (Molly Ephraim) – who cheerfully go the extra mile.

Written by Emi Moschizuki & Carrie Evans (part of the Disney Writers’ Program that encourages young talent), along with Cinco Paul & Ken Daurio and directed by Roger Kumble (“The Sweetest Thing”), it’s a skimpy, G-rated TV episode that’s been padded with silly slapstick to feature-film length. Mercifully, that’s only 83 minutes long. And, for those who care, most of the academic exteriors were filmed at various prep schools and colleges in Connecticut. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 t 10, “College Road Trip” is a clumsy, arduous 4. Family-friendly doesn’t have to mean dumbed-down.